This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Sam Gentile. Original Post: Being a Thought Leader Feed Title: Sam Gentile's Blog Feed URL: http://samgentile.com/blog/Rss.aspx Feed Description: .NET and Software Development from an experienced perspective - .NET/CLR, Rotor, Interop, MC+/C++, COM+, ES, Mac OS X, Extreme Programming and More! Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Sam Gentile Latest Posts From Sam Gentile's Blog

In response to Ted Leung's comments: If I'm looking for thought leadership from the community, in the Java community, I'm looking towards the non Sun bloggers -- these are the folks doing AOP, Groovy, SGen, Prevalence, WebWork, etc. This shows the rich ecosystem that has grown up around Java. If I look at the .NET community, I pretty much look for the MS bloggers, Dare wrote:

"When I think of thought leadership in the .NET world I'm more likely to think of Sam Gentile or Clemens Vasters than I am to think of some blue badge carrying employee at the Redmond campus."

Wow, thanks! From that, Scoble had a great post “How do you Identify a .NET Thought Leader?“

To me, being a Thought Leader is knowing that .NET is just one tool in a toolbox to be used. Being a thought leader is knowing Java is one tool in a tooolbox to be used. Web Services is one tool. Being a thought leader is being able to see the bigger picture, to realize it's all about business needs and solving them and knowing when to pick the right tool out of the toolbox that meets the particular business need at hand. Being a thought leader is writing freely, speaking your mind, exposing what is bad and good about a technology, not echoing any party lines, having the responsibility to your readership, your community and yourself to call it as it is, to be true to your beliefs and oneself. Being a thought leader is helping your community in suggesting directions to go in, to see the future while clearly seeing the present and past.